This invention relates to simulated baseball game apparatus having a playing surface or board on which the game is played.
Various simulated baseball games have been developed or proposed over the years. These game devices are intended to simulate to a greater or lesser extent the well known sport of baseball which has been played for many, many years. Briefly, the game of baseball involves two teams of nine players each with the teams alternating between offensive play and defensive play. The team that is playing offense has each of its players in turn attempt to hit a ball thrown towards home plate by a pitcher on the defensive team. The offensive player attempts to hit the ball with a bat and gets three chances called "strikes" to hit a fair ball. An offensive batter will be considered "out" if the ball is caught by a defensive player after it is hit in the air. Also a batter will be considered "out" if he fails to reach first base before the hit ball is thrown to first base. Runs are scored by the batters hitting singles, doubles, triples and home runs which enable the batters to run from one base to the next and eventually to home plate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,179,123 issued Dec. 18, 1979 to M. Tsukuda describes a baseball game board that includes a pitching mechanism and a rack and pinion batting mechanism for permitting either left-handed or right handed batting. The nature of a hit ball is indicated by the region of the outfield that is struck by the ball. A home run is indicated by hitting the ball into a central portion of the outfield where the ball can escape from the flat playing surface. The pitching mechanism is an inclined groove which slants downwardly towards home plate. The device is operated by a lever that can be controlled by a player at the edge of the board. The batting mechanism includes a horizontally extending bat member that is rotatable about a vertical axis.
Earlier U.S. Pat. No. 2,244,204 issued Jun. 3, 1941 to F. H. Kessler describes a baseball game apparatus having a pitching device, a batting device and base-running means. The pitching device has a barrel mounted for horizontal swinging movement above the playing surface. Extending into this barrel is a rod provided at one end with a plunger disk which is urged by a coil spring towards the mouth of the barrel. A ball is held within the mouth end of the barrel until the pitching device is operated. This game also has infielding and outfielding devices that can be manipulated from the sides of the game board.
Early U.S. Pat. No. 1,687,180 issued Oct. 9, 1928 to H. E. Pickett describes a baseball game board with a pitching device and a batting mechanism. The pitching device consists of an arm pivoted intermediate its ends to the board. One end of the arm is connected to an elastic band. An adjustable cam plate cooperates with this arm to determine the type and direction of the ball to be pitched.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a simulated baseball game apparatus which has features and components that make the game similar to the sport of baseball. For example, with the simulated pitching mechanism described herein, it is possible for a player to produce quite a variety of "pitches", including curve balls and fast balls.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a simulated baseball game apparatus that while being very interesting and fun to play, can still be manufactured at a reasonable cost and without undue difficulty.